Keep on doing it!
Colossians 4: 2-6
It’s Saturday, September 30th and the Ryder Cup is in full swing so I`ll keep this brief!
There’s a phrase often used in the business world when a process has proved successful. Rinse and repeat. Do the same thing again because it works. I know, for instance, in our business, that if we do the research, identify the target client, and write to them, we will get a good response rate. If we continue to do the same thing over and over again, we will get the results we need.
Whilst glued to the television coverage of the Ryder Cup I was struck by a comment made by one of the European Team, Justin Rose. Justin is one of the very best golfers in the world reaching the number one spot in 2018. On the first day of this year’s tournament in Rome he hit one particular shot onto the eighteenth green that enabled him to tie the match and gave his team an important half-point in the tournament. Afterward, he commented that he had told himself to think he was on the practice ground and not surrounded by the pressure of the world`s best-known cross-Atlantic golf tournament. “Just trust your routine,” he told himself as he hit the ball to within a few feet of the hole.
Routine can be both good and bad. I tend to be a workaholic and as admirable as hard work is I recognise it’s not good for it to be constant and without respite. Similarly, we can often do other things slavishly and out of pure habit. We might even go to church for forty years and sit in the same seat out of habit.
My first Bible teacher and Christian mentor told me something I’ve never forgotten. “Create good habits,” he said. And so, one habit I began nearly thirty years ago was to have an early morning time of Bible reading and prayer. I get up early so that I can have an hour or more alone in the stillness of dawn and before my wife rises. I have occasionally questioned whether it is something done religiously or out of love and as part of a loving two-way relationship. Fortunately, I know that it’s something I want to do because I want to hear my Heavenly Father speak to me through His word.
Colossians 4 instructs us to “be persistent in prayer” because God wants us to go to Him constantly with our needs and requests. Similarly, regular reading of God’s word helps us to know Him better and to understand His will for our lives; His good, perfect, and pleasing will.
What more could you possibly need in your life?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us to create good habits that reveal your perfect will for each of our lives so that we can honour and glorify you.
Neil Bromage, 01/10/2023